Week 25 of the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis League was a busy one for the Club with all five of our teams in action.
 
The week started with Team 3’s visit to the Gyle on Tuesday 28th March to take on Murrayfield 8 in Division 2. After their good win against Uni 3B in Week 24, Team 3 know that they can afford no slip ups as they try and finish 2nd and gain promotion to Division 1.  Uni 2 sat in second place going into Week 25 a point ahead of Team 3 but with the Penicuik side having two games in hand.  Julian Taylor returned after missing Week 24 as he joined James Wighton and Ian Hislop. The match could not have started any better for the visitors – Julian won Match 1 in straight sets before two vital five enders both went the way of the Penicuik side, Ian defeating Amit Kumar 11-8 in the fifth and James defeating Richard Lo 11-6 in the decider. 3-0 to the visitors and that got even better when Julian defeated Amit to make it 4-0. A five setter then went the way of the hosts as Phillipe Almichel defeated James to get the Murrayfield side on the scoreboard. When Ian defeated Richard in 4 ends, it looked plain sailing for the visitors – 5-1 up and coasting.  With the doubles expert in Hannah not playing, Julian and James combined but fell in straight sets – all Julian’s fault according to James and that made it 5-2. James then fell to Amit in another five end marathon and suddenly it was 5-3. Ian was outplayed in straight sets by Phillipe but fortunately, Julian was able to secure the win with a four end victory over Richard. From 5-1 up the visitors were ultimately relieved to get over the line with a 6-4 win. That temporarily put the side back into second place, prior to Edinburgh Uni’s match on Friday night v Corstorphine when a 6-4 win for the students resulted in the positions reversing again. 1 match left for Edinburgh Uni and 3 left for Team 3.   
 
Wednesday night saw Team 1 travel to Fife knowing that they still needed at least a point if not 2 to secure their Premier League status for another year. In the first half of the season, Greig and Colin had played a player short and just fell to a 6-4 defeat. The call for a third player on this occasion was answered by Krzysztof Laszkiewicz from Team 2. According to Fife Captain Peter Aird, Fife had been struggling to get a full side out and the interest in playing had waned to the extent that they were likely to only have two players – yeah right Peter – They played their last two away matches a player short but it was a different story for this home match – 10 players to pick from (how’s that fair!) Peter was joined by Grant Williams and Tales Yamamoto. Krys had a great opener against Grant and was 2-1 up before Grant found his form – 11-2, 11-3 in the final two ends gave the Fife team the perfect start. Greig meanwhile was involved in his own five setter against Tales – having squared the contest with an 11-7 fourth end win, he completely lost his concentration in the decider – 2-0 to Fife. Colin then faced Peter and this also went the distance – 2-1 up, Colin had match point in the fourth but lost out 13-11 before an 11-7 defeat in the fifth gave the hosts their third consecutive five end win. It got worse for the visitors as Tales defeated Krys in 3 straight sets. 4-0 down and struggling. The tide turned a little in the next two matches played simultaneously – at last the visitors came out on top in a five end match as Colin defeated Grant 11-9 in the fifth and at the same time Greig defeated Peter in four ends – 4-2. Peter played Krys out of order and before the doubles and that victory gave the hosts a 5-2 advantage but that was pulled back in the doubles - Greig and Colin lost their doubles in the first half against Fife but not on this occasion – a straight sets win and the Penicuik side were in with a chance of salvaging a draw at 5-3 down. Déjà vu with Week 24 – the last two matches were shared as Team 1 fell to another narrow 6-4 defeat, their fifth of the season. Not said it for a while but this feels like a good time to bring it back – which part of Edinburgh and Lothians is Inverkeithing in again?? Team 1 are still in all sorts of trouble, one place above the relegation zone with two games left to play.
 
Having avoided relegation from Division 3 with their victory in Week 24, Team 4 were in relaxed mood as they took on Herriot Watt 2 at Ladywood on Thursday night. Bob Porteous and Richard Millar were joined by Craig Linton, recovered from an injury which has meant he’s missed virtually the whole season. The students of Herriot Watt were already relegated before this match but if their number 1, Vladyslav Kapinus, had played more than half a season they would probably have been safe – he had played 30 matches before his visit to Ladywood and had won 28 of them. He was to keep that record going with another 3 victories, Craig doing best by taking an end from him. Only one other match all night went to four ends, Craig defeating Cameron Denholm 13-11 in the fourth. Team 4 don’t mess about – as Team Captain Bob pointed out their moto seemed to be win fast and lose fast! 8 matches were over in a flash by 3-0 scorelines and the home side won 6 of them – a 7-3 victory for the hosts with all three players picking up two wins, was a good finish to the season for Team 4. In the end although they diced with relegation throughout, the tightness of this division saw them finish in a group of teams on 15 points, well clear of relegation and another point could have seen them remarkably finish in fifth place on their own. The second half of the season saw them pick up double the amount of points they had done in the first half. Bob has led the side brilliantly in Craig’s absence through injury – a terrific first season for him winning 44 of his 60 matches played and the team’s fortunes were certainly improved by Richard joining the Team – he won two thirds of his 21 games played.
 
Team 2 were also in action at Ladywood but their match with West Lothian 2 was probably of more interest to Corstorphine than it was to them. It looks like Team 2 are not going to survive in Division 1 but at the other end of the table, Corstorphine who had led the way and been in the promotion spots since the season started, needed a favour from Penicuik to kept them in second place. Going into the match, a couple of 5-5 draws combined with a loss to league leaders Edinburgh University meant that Corstorphine had concluded their season and sat in 2nd place with 36 points and a games difference of +92. West Lothian had recruited Ben Hart from Stirlingshire for the second half of the season and he’s made a huge difference. They went into the match knowing that a win would put them level on points with Corstorphine – they started the night with a game difference of +88. The maths told them that they needed an 8-2 win or better to win the second promotion place! 7-3 and goodness knows what would happen – they’d be tied on points and games difference. With Gary McDougal on holiday, Charlie Brindley made a rare appearance this season as he joined Krzysztof Laszkiewicz and Abby Wighton. When the first three matches all went the way of the visitors in rapid fashion, this looked like being a walk in the park for the promotion chasing Bathgate side. Match 4 saw Abby take on Ben – we won’t mention the first end, but at 2-0 down she caused a little bit of anxiety by winning the third end 11-5 – she couldn’t sustain it though as she fell in four ends – 0-4. The next two matches got the WL hearts fluttering even more – Jamie Toner v Charlie and Mark Robertson v Krys – both games went the distance – the other Corstorphine side who were at Ladywood playing our fifth team would maybe have something positive to report back to their Team 1 – the fifth ends in both matches went the way of the visitors and 6-0 became 7-0 when the doubles was won in four ends by Ben and Jamie. Could the unthinkable happen and Penicuik win the last three matches? Eh no! Charlie did get on the board in match 10 but by then WL had done enough and a 9-1 victory saw them leapfrog Corstorphine and gain promotion to the Premier League. In a season where the teams played 220 games, Corstorphine lost out winning 156 compared to WL’s 158 – that’s got to hurt!
 
Finally on a busy night at Ladywood, Team 5 hosted top of the table Corstorphine 4 who had already secured the Division 4 title. This was always going to be a difficult match for the Club’s newest side who started the match some 20 points behind the Champions. Aidan Craig, Patrick Shanks and Sian McDonald, however, were not going to roll over. Aidan’s win in Match 1 of the night in four ends was followed by the narrowest of five end defeats for Sian – she lost out 11-9 in the decider. Match 3 saw Patrick go the distance but on this occasion the home player came out on top with a 13-11 fifth end win. Match 4 went the way of the visitors and that was followed by a loss for Aidan in Match 5 to give the visitors their first lead of the night. Patrick was getting his money’s worth as his second match also went to a fifth end decider and he triumphed again with an 11-7 victory. This topsy turvy affair was all square going into the doubles and a comfortable win for Aidan and Sian put the hosts ahead at 4-3. Sian couldn’t quite get over the line in Match 8 as she fell to a four end defeat. 4-4 going into the last two matches. Patrick played match 9 and according to NPC Brian, he seemed to be taken over by fatigue, losing quickly in 3 sets. The team surely deserved something out of this match and it was left to Aidan to produce some great table tennis to gain the team a terrific 5-5 draw against the Division 4 Champions. One match to go for Team 5 as they travel to Haddington next week.
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Team 4 were our best performing team this week with two wins each for all three players and a doubles victory contributing to their 7-3 win. Only one player was undefeated and that was Julian for Team 3. Julian’s three wins were obviously crucial as Team 3 sneaked over the line 6-4 to maintain their push for promotion. Julian has been in excellent form recently and with 3 matches still to go for Team 3, he is in contention to have the Club’s best individual average across the divisions. He’s got some stern competition though from Aidan and Bob. But that’s the competition for our player of the season award – there can be no doubt this week that, despite a loss in the doubles, Julian’s 3 singles took some pressure of his teammates and was pivotal in the win for Team 3 – well done to Julian.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. Team 1’s match in Fife was good fun! How can a team with ten registered players field only two out of ten – as we reported above this has happened on the last two occasions when Fife have played away from home or to put it another way when they’ve played in the Edinburgh and Lothians area! Putting that to one side, on Wednesday night we were met by a full team of three (yeah thanks Fife) and were told from when the tables were being set up that they were on a tight schedule and needed to get on with the matches. Nothing wrong with that – we are in a similar position at Ladywood. First two matches on simultaneously causes no difficulty but when one of the matches finished, the Fife team Captain effectively interrupted the ongoing match to tell Colin who was umpiring Greig v Tales that he needed to now give up his umpiring duties and he would be replaced by Grant. Really – could that not wait until the ongoing match was finished? Greig proceeded to quickly lose the fifth end and the score in the Peter v Colin match at that point was 3-3 in the first end. Hold on, as if enough disruption had not already occurred the Fife Team captain then stops playing to come over to the other table to look at who was on next – in the middle of a game –Krys, who now had the umpiring duties in the Colin v Peter game had to get up from his seat and be replaced so he could play match 4. This palaver took a few minutes to be resolved much to the irritation of the visitors and much to the annoyance of the Fife team captain who saw nothing wrong with what was going on. “That’s just the way it has to be” he screamed. The musical chairs continued through the night all on the basis that Fife would run out of time had we not done so. 5 matches completed, match 6 was going into a fifth end – hold on let’s just now play things out of order – we will miss the doubles so we can get Match 8 played! What?? Really? Not only do we have to interrupt the matches as we go we now have to play a final singles match before the doubles – now call us old fashioned but scoreboard pressure can play a part in matches like this. The doubles is often key. Greig and Colin have a good record in the doubles. But no, we’ll get another singles started at 4-1 to the hosts rather than waiting 5 minutes and then playing the doubles – had it been played in order we would have been at 4-3 playing matches 8 and 9 respectively and then 5-4 whilst playing match 10 – maybe the pressure would have been more on the hosts at that stage to secure a victory? As it was the match was finished by 9.20pm and we couldn’t resist pointing out repeatedly to our Fife hosts that we had managed to finish with plenty time “left on the clock”. Whilst we recognise that time constraints are often an issue it is ridiculous in our view to have to rush the way we did on Wednesday night – by all means play two matches at once (although we don’t like that we recognise this needs to be done for most of us) BUT don’t disrupt games and switch umpires mid game and then play out of order – even with four matches going to deciding fifth ends there was still more than half an hour left at the end of the night. There should be a rule introduced to prevent such craziness!  
 
In a similar vein, Team 5 have a policy when they play at home of starting their matches on one table – they play the first three singles out before then moving onto two tables for the rest of the night. This is NPC Brian’s idea and we like it – his rationale is that it enables the side to see all their opponents in action before moving on to the second round of singles matches – we have a 10pm finishing time and Team 5 have never fallen foul of that. Our opponents on Thursday night were not too keen on this idea though and complained a little that the match should be on two tables from the outset – surely it's up to the home team though to decide how the matches should be played – maybe that’s something which needs clarified for next season. 

The regular season over - some outstanding fixtures to be caught up on which will determine all of our outstanding promotion / relegation issues and the semi-finals and final of the Handicap Cup still to come! What fun awaits....

​Three of our teams were in action in Week 24 of the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis League.
 
The week started with Team 4’s visit to Fife on Wednesday 22nd March. The previous night had seen two other teams in relegation trouble take part in a vital Division 3 encounter as Haddington 6 hosted University 5. A win for the East Lothian side meant that they secured safety and Team 4 would join them if they could pick up a win against Fife.  Bob Porteous, Richard Millar and Rachel Petrie made the trip to Inverkeithing and when Bob and Richard won the first two singles matches of the night hopes were high that the visitors would secure the points needed for survival. Rachel has had some agonisingly narrow defeats recently and her match against Neil Hoggan went the distance – could she come out on the right side this time? She came so close but fell to an 11-9 defeat in the fifth. Match 4 also went the distance as Bob struggled against Davy Duffy – the fifth end turned out to be rather one-sided with Bob running away with it 11-3 to give the visitors a crucial 3-1 lead. Steve Saunders then defeated Rachel and that was followed by another five end tussle involving Neil, this time against Richard. Neil again triumphed and suddenly the match was back in the balance at 3-3. How often do we say that the doubles is critical – no more so than on this night – Bob and Richard are a formidable pairing and they secured their fourth win out of five doubles matches played this season with a 3-0 victory over Steve and Neil. Rachel then took to the table in Match 8 and was over the moon to defeat Davy in three straight ends – a point was secured. Player of the match, Bob, then secured the win against Neil before Richard made the score look more comfortable than it was with a win in the last match of the night. A terrific 7-3 victory for the visitors and with that, their Division 3 status was secured – well done Team 4.  One match to go and a win in that would leave the team in a very positive mood for next season.
 
The following night at Ladywood saw Teams 1 and 3 both in action. Team 3’s Division 2 campaign has seen them sit in the top two for most of the season but a run of cancellations and a slip up against Edinburgh International left them coming into this match in third place, three points behind 2nd place albeit with 3 games in hand. James Wighton, Hannah McDonell and Ian Hislop hosted Edinburgh University 3B, hoping to close the gap on second place. Ian was first up and won his match in four ends before a win from James in 3 was followed by a straight sets victory for Hannah in Match 3. 3-0 up and it was looking good for the hosts. The next three singles were all won in straight sets and the victory was secured. James and Hannah then combined in the doubles, which proved to be the closest match of the night, the hosts just coming through in five ends. The match was concluded in the same way it had begun with another round of singles all going the way of the hosts as they recorded an excellent 10-0 win – they now sit 1 point behind second place with two games in hand.
 
Team 1 have had a torrid time since Brian Hunter was injured and declared out for the season in Week 6. They faced Murrayfield 3 in Week 24 and called upon Craig Linton from Division 3 to make his premier league debut – Craig acquitted himself well but didn’t manage to get on the scoreboard – so it was up to Greig McDonell and Colin Green to try and somehow find 5 or 6 wins between them. When Colin lost to Zihao Li the hopes of a win took a big knock. Greig reversed his result from the first half against Tomasz Bracha to keep the hosts in with a chance and when Colin defeated Haydn Jackson in four ends the score was 3-2 going into match 6. Greig took on Zihao. Greig sneaked the first end 12-10 but then lost the next two and the writing was on the wall – a fourth end 11-7 victory sent the match into the fifth and lo and behold Greig held 3 match points at 10-7 in the decider – he probably needed to finish it on his own serve, but he didn’t and a 12-10 defeat left him extremely frustrated at what might have been. Greig and Colin have a good doubles record and another victory for them brought them within 2 games of a draw – Colin v Tomasz and Greig v Haydn. Colin did what he needed to do in four ends. Greig had played Haydn three times this season before this match, twice in the League and once in the Scottish National League – he had never lost – you know what’s coming – pressure and nerves probably played a part as Greig fell to a deuce in the fifth loss and with it a 6-4 defeat for Team 1. Oh dear – still not safe from relegation – three matches to go – they need to pick up a point or preferably two to avoid the drop.
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Bob has been brilliant throughout the season for Team 4. 57 games played and 42 games won – he’s made the difference, especially in the latter part of the season when points have been picked up to avoid relegation. He had another sterling performance in Week 24 with 3 wins and a doubles victory in the sides 7-3 win. All of Team 3 were also undefeated this week. Of all our Teams in the League, Team 3 have been the most successful (whether they win promotion or not). On the night James won player of the match (how did that happen) and Hannah played the most entertaining and pleasing to the eye table tennis, but this week’s award goes to the most senior player of the trio – goodness knows what age he really is but Greig remembers playing him in the mid-80s and thinking he was near to retirement age back then!! That old green bat of his may be gone, but he still gives 100% and still causes difficulties to all of his opponents. He may not have played as many matches as his teammates (because he’s always on holiday!) but his contribution this season has been vital to the team – well done to Ian Hislop – a well deserved and long overdue (he says) weekly award.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. In Team 4’s match in Fife there was an incident involving Rachel during her first match. In the first end of that match the “home team umpire” appears to have had an issue with Rachel’s serves. According to the team, this was influenced by someone watching from the side-lines and did not apparently come direct from the umpire. The issue was that Rachel was not throwing the ball up high enough. The most controversial element of this, however, was that the Umpire didn’t raise this direct with Rachel but instead the Umpire rose from his chair and marched into the adjoining court where Bob was playing to tell Bob that Rachel wasn’t throwing the ball up properly! What? How bizarre! We assume this was done because Bob was Team captain?? Who knows why it was done but completely unnecessary and at a time when Bob was involved in playing an important match of his own. Rachel pointed out to the Umpire that he should be speaking to her and not Bob – it had nothing to do with Bob. Apparently, the umpire then rather aggressively said to Rachel “I’m watching you now, you’ve been warned” – Yikes! Whilst Rachel is not claiming that this caused her to lose the match, it definitely affected her. There are ways to bring up matters such as this and this was definitely not the way to do it!
 
As the end of the season approaches, the issue of concessions rears it’s head. In Division 3, there was a tight battle at the foot of the table to avoid relegation. Haddington 6 secured their Division 3 status with a victory over Edinburgh University. They would have been a target for Team 4 had that result not gone their way – imagine the effect therefore of a 10-0 concession being given by Fife to Haddington last week – apparently Fife couldn’t muster a team to make the trip to East Lothian. A 10-0 victory that, even had they not defeated Uni last week, would then have made them safe to the detriment of some other team of course. Maybe if Fife had still been in danger of the drop they would not have conceded but it’s the impact on others which needs to be borne in mind. Or is it just luck of the draw and something we have to put up with? It does seem entirely unfair that relegation (and indeed promotion) could be influenced and affected as a result of such concessions – perhaps the “punishment” for conceding needs to be harsher to avoid teams doing so? Mind you we don’t want that rule introduced yet given that as we reported last week, we have a concession on our record that we didn’t even know about!!  We have now appealed against that!
 
Virtually all over for another year – a busy couple of weeks coming up to bring the season to a close. 

Four of our teams were in action in Week 23 of the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis League.
 
The week started off with Team 3’s trip on Tuesday 14th March, to take on Haddington 3 in Division 2. James Wighton, Julian Taylor and Ian Hislop travelled to East Lothian knowing that they needed to improve on their first half performance against the Haddington outfit which had finished in a 5-5 draw. Julian was up first against Mark McMullan. In the reverse fixture Mark had come out on top – it was a good sign therefore when Julian won in four ends. That was backed up by a win for Ian against Gordon Aien and the first round of singles was concluded with a victory for James over David Hayman. Match 4 pitted Julian against Gordon – in the reverse fixture Julian had also lost out in this one but he reversed that result with a comfortable four end victory. The night got better for the visitors when James got the better of Mark in 4 ends to secure at least a point, 5-0. David got the hosts on the board against Ian in match 6 but the win was then secured as James and Julian combined for an important five end win in the doubles. Further wins for Julian and Ian secured an 8-2 victory, a terrific result for Team 3.
 
Thursday night at Ladywood was a busy one with three teams in action. Team 2 hosted North Merchiston 2 in Division 1. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Abby Wighton know they’re in deep relegation trouble. The report from Team Captain, Mr Scrabble Man, was a brief one – “Abby played well, don’t ask us the score!” Oh well let’s move on!
 
Team 4 has, for virtually all of this season, been very much in the relegation battle in Division 3. But then so have a number of teams – no division in the League is as tight as this one. Even with most teams only having two or 3 games left to play no fewer than 6 teams (that’s more than half the division) remain in trouble. Any two of that six could go down. Bob Porteous, Richard Millar and Jim Jack faced a crucial match against Haddington 6 on Thursday evening, the hosts starting the night second bottom and the visitors fourth bottom, separated by just 2 points. The reverse fixture had ended in a 5-5 draw – Team 4 needed to change that result into a win. The night started well with Bob winning in straight sets before Richard was involved in a vital five ender. Having lost the first two ends 11-6, 11-8 he turned the match around winning the next three 11-9, 11-8, 11-7. Jim then looked to make it three wins out of three and was unlucky to lose out 11-8 in the fifth. 2-1 to the hosts. The next set of three singles also produced 2 wins for the hosts and so they held a 4-2 lead going into the doubles. When Bob and Richard combined for a win a point was secured for the hosts. Match 8 then saw Richard involved in another five end marathon – this time, however, he let a 2-0 advantage slip as he lost the final three ends 10-12, 11-13, 9-11 – couldn’t get much closer than that! Still a chance therefore for the visitors to pull out a draw. Match 9 put the result beyond doubt as Jim secured a three end win against his opposite number. Bob then rounded off an excellent night for him and the team with a four end victory to give Penicuik a 7-3 victory.
 
In an important week for Team 4 they were again in action the following evening as they made the trip to Edinburgh University. They were hit with bad news before the match got underway with the withdrawal of Richard who had injured himself the previous night. Jim Jack stepped in to join Bob Porteous and Rachel Petrie. The visitors got off to a great start when Bob won a tight first match 13-11 in the fifth. Defeats followed however for Jim and Rachel before Bob won another fifth end decider to level the scores at 2-2. The pattern repeated itself unfortunately as the hosts won the next two singles – 4-2 going into the doubles which Bob and Rachel won in four ends – 4-3 down with three matches left to play, could the visitors recover for at least a point? Rachel was then involved in a mammoth five set match and fell at the last hurdle, a 9-11 loss in the decider put the pressure on Bob in game 9 to keep the match alive – it wasn’t to be as Bob lost out in four ends. In the end the University side won the last match of the night to secure a 7-3 victory. So, two matches in two nights and two points secured - that win v Haddington keeps Team 4 one point above the relegation zone.
 
Team 5 were also in action at Ladywood on Thursday 16th March, as they hosted West Lothian 5 in Division 4. Patrick Shanks, Sian McDonald and Chamika Diyunugalge were the trio selected for his week’s encounter. WL 5 are flying high at the top end of the Division and probably favourites for promotion, so this was never going to be an easy match. Sian was unlucky in Match 1 when she lost out in four ends, the three she lost being by the narrowest of margins, 12-10, 13-11 and 11-8. When Patrick then lost a fifth end decider 11-9 in Match 2, the hosts knew they were in for a long night. Although Chamika lost match 3 in straight sets, it may have been a different story had he not narrowly lost the first end 16-14. Patrick got the hosts on the board in match 4 before Sian again lost out by a very narrow margin – at 1-1 in ends she lost the next two 11-13, 10-12. Match 6 also went the way of the visitors and that secured them a point. Luck just didn’t seem to be on Sian and Patrick’s side as they lost the doubles in five ends, the three ends they lost – 8-11, 11-13, 9-11! The night was summed up by Patrick’s loss in match 8 – another 11-9 in the decider going the way of the Bathgate side. Chamika then lost in five before Sian lost another in 4 as the hosts fell to a 9-1 defeat. As we often say, some 9-1 scores do represent a true gulf between the sides – this 9-1 doesn’t do that. We are sure the WL side will be the first to say that the match was much closer than the score suggests. A good effort by our newest team in the League.
 
We suppose for sake of completeness we have to at least give the score from Team 2’s match! 8 ends won in their 10-0 defeat. The fat lady is just about to sing….
 
And so, to our player of the week award. It’s a two-way fight this week between Julian from Team 3 and Bob from Team 4. Both had undefeated nights in the League and both contributed to victories in the doubles – Bob spoiled a perfect week for himself by playing two nights in a row and dropping a match against University – 5 wins out of six on the week is mighty impressive. But given that Julian in the reverse fixture against Haddington had only won 1 against the same trio that turned out in Week 23, his undefeated night was hugely important in Team 3’s victory – well done to Julian.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. We learned this week that Team 1 appear to have conceded a fixture to Murrayfield 1. That was news to both Colin and Greig. Colin sought a postponement of the original fixture scheduled for 30th January. Murrayfield agreed to the postponement. They then offered the 16th of February as a proposed rearranged date. As a result of personal circumstances Greig couldn’t make this date and so Colin advised Murrayfield of that fact (we only have two players as a result of the injury to Brian in the first half of the season). Murrayfield had indicated that they were struggling to find suitable dates. Colin suggested 3 other potential dates and, in his mind anyway, the Edinburgh outfit would come back to him once they had looked more thoroughly at the matter. Although the online scoring system shows the match as postponed, it was noticed by us last week that it also shows as a concession – Colin took the matter up with the Match Secretary and lo and behold Murrayfield appear to have claimed the game on the basis that they offered the 16th of February and we couldn’t make it so done and dusted – a 10-0 win to the Team who are running away with the Premier title and who have an abundance of Premier League players at their disposal. Apparently no other possible dates exist on which they could fit in a rearranged fixture. Yeah thanks Murrayfield. Had Colin known this to be the position which was going to be taken, he would have grabbed someone from a lower team and played with two players – who knows Colin may have won some matches – let’s hope game difference doesn’t play a part at the end of the season with Team 1 in relegation trouble! We are considering an appeal against this “claimed concession”.
 
Most teams now only have two or three matches left - Week 24 here we come. 

​Week 22 of the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis League was a very quiet one for the Club with only two teams in action.
 
Team 2 made the trip on Tuesday 7th March to take on Edinburgh Sports Club in Division 1. Team 2 are in real trouble and although we were criticised a little for having written them off somewhat prematurely as relegation favourites earlier in the season, their recent run of form has done nothing to give us any hope that they might by some miracle manage to stay in the Division. Their last two defeats have been by 9-1 and 10-0 scores. Whilst their opponents are going to miss out on promotion they sit comfortably in fourth position in the table. This match was never, therefore, going to be easy for Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Abby Wighton. They faced Chris Shaw, Alan Nisbet and Alexander Asyunkin. This match was played out of order with Team 2 allowing Chris to play his 3 matches at the outset – something that Team 1 Captain, Colin Green, would never have allowed – surely it gives the player an advantage of warming up, getting into a nice rhythm and playing players who are cold – but hey Team Captain Krys is obviously too nice – he might have been regretting his decision when Chris won all three of his matches dropping only two ends in the process. At 3-0 down the team’s chances of picking up anything from this match were fading away. 3-0 quickly became 6-0, and by that point spirits were down heading into the doubles. Abby & Gary took on the two remaining ESC players and never really threatened – the night ended as it had begun with another three wins for the hosts as Team 2 suffered a 10-0 loss.   Three matches left for the Penicuik trio and the problem for them is that whilst they sit 3rd from bottom at present the two teams below them who sit level on points and one point below them respectively have still to play each other – whatever the result of that match, one of the two teams is going to leapfrog Penicuik. That means Team 2 needs at least a point and maybe 2 from their last three matches to have any chance of survival. Eight matches for Team 2 have resulted in 6-4 scorelines and SEVEN of them have been defeats. That’s got to hurt!
 
The only other match this week saw Team 5 travel to the Gyle to take on Murrayfield 11. The reverse fixture resulted in a 5-5 draw at Ladywood. On this occasion squad rotation resulted in the visitors fielding Aidan Craig, Ian Millar and Chamika Diyunugalge.  When Aidan lost the first match of the night, the Penicuik trio feared the worst. Despite losing his first end of the night 11-2, Chamika then won the next 12-10 before losing the third 10-12. He was well the match – oh hold on, his inconsistency resurfaced with an 11-1 loss in the fourth! That’s something to work on! After Ian lost match 3, Aidan got the visitors on the board in match 4. That was as good as it got unfortunately for Team 5 as they fell to a disappointing 9-1 defeat.

And so, to our player of the week award. Well this is difficult! 6 players in action, 20 matches played and ONE solitary win – that came from Aidan but we can’t really give out a player of the week award for that, can we?? Hmm? Even more bizarre would be to give it to someone who won no matches, wouldn’t it? So for the first time (and hopefully only time) this season, we’re looking back to any contenders recently who were unlucky to miss out – Patrick last week was undefeated and as for Week 20 we ignored that both Bob and Richard were undefeated and gave it to Phil who only won two! We came in for some criticism for that decision! Surely it’s time to right that wrong? Eh maybe not! We can’t go back a couple of weeks – last week we overlooked a player who deserves a mention.  A new player this season, he turns up regularly at practice on Wednesdays and Saturdays and takes on board all advice given out. From his start point at the beginning of the season, he has made terrific progress and if he can convert his practice play to match play his win rate will improve dramatically. Week 21 saw him win his first match of the season (if we ignore his win against Mr Walkover earlier in the season). That win secured a 5-5 draw for his team as well – Congratulations to Roscoe – keep up the hard work.
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. As we mentioned above, Team 2 agreed to a player playing three matches in a row – in the end it didn’t have any impact on the result. In a similar vein though we had to seek a ruling in advance about a team (or player from a team) seeking to turn up late. The player was going to turn up over an hour after the starting time. We expressed unhappiness at this prospect and ultimately the player wasn’t late. The ruling however was a little strange. It was suggested we didn’t have to agree to such and we could claim the players games in those circumstances. We don’t think that’s what the rules say. What we seem to be stuck with is the rule that if an opposing team or player is more than half an hour late then if the match can’t finish in time (and only in that event) any matches that can’t be played are forfeited. The old rule was that the opposing team / players had 30 minutes to show up failing which the match would be forfeited. Now though a player could turn up a couple of hours late, we’ve played virtually all the other matches but we have to play the late player. In what other sport would that be allowed. We’re not quite sure why the old rule has vanished – seems bizarre.
 
We also had reason last week to question why new players can’t be registered after 31 January. We had a couple of new players join the Club in February. One of them is only here for six months and wants to play competitively. He’d love to play in the League. But he can’t. The rationale? A strong player coming in after that could affect promotion and relegation. Opponents playing against a new strong player after 31st January could complain that other opponents who played against the team earlier did not face that new strong player, and so post 31st January opponents would be at a disadvantage, which could affect promotion and relegation. Surely that’s too early? By 31st January this season our Teams 1 and 2 still had 8 matches to play - more than a third of a season’s fixtures. And what’s the difference between a new player being registered on 31st January or a week or two later. Makes no sense to us.
 
Oh well on we go to Week 23, missing from our league membership a couple of players who, had they arrived a couple of weeks before at the club, could have played league table tennis. 

​Into March already and Week 21 of the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis League saw all five of our teams again in action.
 
The week started with Teams 2 and 5 both travelling to Edinburgh International on Wednesday 1st March. Team 2 have been in trouble for virtually all of this season and the relegation trapdoor from Division 1 is opening a little bit more for them - Krzysztof Laszkiewicz, Gary McDougal and Abby Wighton were not necessarily identifying this encounter as a target for points – the trouble for the team, however, is that there’s not many games left which look, on paper, particularly winnable! Probably the less said about this encounter the better – Gary was our best performer on the night with two of his three matches being decided in five ends – other than that this was a miserable evening as the visitors fell to a 10-0 defeat.
 
In the other half of the hall, Team 5 called upon Patrick Shanks, Sian McDonald and Roscoe Cairney in their Division 4 encounter. Sian lost match 1 in four ends before a four end win for Patrick levelled the scores. Roscoe then secured match 3 to give the visitors the advantage before the match was levelled again as Sian lost out in Match 4. This topsy turvy affair then swung in favour of the home side before Patrick won match 6 to level the score at 3-3 going into that ever crucial doubles. Patrick and Sian let a 2-1 advantage slip as they lost in five. For the first time on the night there was more than one match in it as the home side won Match 8 to give them a 5-3 advantage. But this game had been tight all night and wins for Sian and Patrick secured what in the end was probably a fair result – another 5-5 draw for Team 5.
 
The following night was a busy one at Ladywood with our three remaining teams all in action. Let’s start with Team 4’s encounter with Edinburgh University. Bob Porteous, Richard Millar and Rachel Petrie took to the table against the students who sat one place and one point beneath them in the Division 3 table.  It’s very tight at the foot of the division and the home side knew that a win here might give them the boost needed to get out of relegation trouble. Bob has had an excellent first season for the Club and so when he lost the first match of the night, trouble was brewing. The hosts fell 2-0 behind after Rachel’s loss in match 2. Richard pulled one back but Rachel’s loss in Match 4 reinstated a two game lead for the visitors. That lead was wiped out, however as Bob and Richard won matches 5 and 6 before combining for a doubles victory to give the hosts a 4-3 advantage going into the last three matches of the night. Match 8 looked like being crucial – Rachel recovered from 2-0 down to win a tight third end 11-9 before a walloping 11-2 win in end four put her in control – she was well up in the decider before falling to an 11-8 deciding end defeat. Two matches left and two wins needed for the win. The two thus far undefeated players took centre stage next as Richard took on Petrina Shek. Richard was 2-0 up but lost the third 12-10. In the fourth end he had a match point, hit what looked like a winner, only for the student to somehow blast the ball back even quicker for a winner of her own – a 13-11 defeat in the fourth sent this to a decider. Like Rachel before him, he fell 11-8 in the fifth and with that the chance of the win was gone.  A point wouldn’t be a disaster but a loss would, so pressure on Bob in the final match of the night – the pressure perhaps showed a little in the first end as he fell 11-8 but he composed himself and was rarely troubled in the next three as he secured a 5-5 draw for Team 4, keeping them just a point above the relegation zone.
 
Team 1 have had a dreadful run after losing their third player, and they knew that unless they could find a victory against bottom of the Premier League Murrayfield 4, they would probably become favourites for the drop. Krzysztof Laszkiewicz was again called upon to help out Colin Green and Greig McDonell in this vital match. When Krys lost match 1 and Colin lost match 2, this had the potential to be a horror night for the hosts. When Greig lost the first end in Match 3 it looked like the wheels were coming off, along with the engine, bodywork and everything else. Greig managed to steady the ship by winning Match 3 in four ends and Colin then brought the scores level in Match 4. The importance of a third player then showed as Krys had an excellent victory against young Haydn Jackson in match 5 and it got better for the hosts as Greig then defeated the Murrayfield number 1 to give the hosts a 4-2 lead going into the doubles. Colin and Greig combined well for a three end victory to secure at least a point. Colin then secured the overall victory in Match 8 before Greig completed his undefeated night in Match 9. Krys lost out in Match 10 but an excellent 7-3 victory for Team 1 gives them a fighting chance of survival in the Premier League. Mathematically Murrayfield 4 are now relegated.
 
Finally on Thursday night there was the eagerly awaited top of the table clash in Division 2 between Team 3 and Murrayfield 9. In the reverse fixture the Murrayfield youngsters of Nichole Lee, William Wang and Rory Thomson had picked up a fairly comfortable 8-2 victory. Ian Hislop who had played in that fixture was replaced by Hannah McDonell as she joined forces with James Wighton and Julian Taylor. After their slip up in Week 20 the team knew that anything out of this match would be a bonus. James threatened an upset in Match 1 against William but lost out in four ends. That loss was cancelled out as Julian defeated Rory in four. The next two matches played simultaneously saw Hannah take on Nichole and Julian face William. In Nichole Lee, Murrayfield have unearthed another extremely talented youngster and she has had an awesome season, winning 47 of her 54 matches played before this match. Hannah was therefore over the moon to win in three straight sets and when Julian did the same against William the hosts were suddenly 3-1 up. James was close in the first two sets against Nichole but she seemed to step it up to another level thereafter as she secured Match 5 leaving Hannah v Rory in the last singles match before the doubles. Just like Nichole, Rory has had an amazing first season at this level – without doubt if he sticks at it he’s one to watch for the future and will, no doubt, soon be mixing it with the “big boys”. Hannah was in control in the first end, 7-3 up and she looked to have the upper hand – an 11-9 loss dented her confidence, but she recovered to win the second 11-9. This was probably the highest quality match of the night. It was certainly the loudest! And we know the noise isn’t going to be coming from Hannah – as the game got tighter the noise levels got higher and at various points play on the other four tables stopped as attention turned to see what was going on. What the various players witnessed was a cracking match in which the tenacious Murrayfield youngster secured the win to level the scores at 3-3 going into the doubles. Hannah and Julian have had a great run of form recently. 1-0 and 2-1 down against Rory and William they dug in and a tight 11-9 victory in end 4 was followed by an 11-6 victory in the decider to give the hosts a 4-3 advantage going into the last set of three singles. One win from three would secure at least a point – surely that was doable? Nichole and William took on Julian and Hannah simultaneously and both home players will rue missed chances as they both lost in four ends – Hannah’s match turned on just a couple of points as she lost out 9-11, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11 whilst Julian let slip a 1-0 advantage, although in fairness Nichole once again seemed to find a different gear in the last couple of ends. Suddenly a point would be a fantastic result for the hosts – James would have to take out Rory in the final match of the night – the tension and pressure, combined with his opponent’s consistent attacking play, probably got to James a little as he fell in three straight sets. A 6-4 loss for Team 3 – oh what might have been – irrespective of the result there was no doubt this was the match of the night.
 
And so, to our player of the week award. Let’s not beat around the bush here – there were only two players this week who were undefeated in singles play but Patrick lost the doubles that he played in so it’s congratulations to Greig – about time according to Colin that he contributed something to Team 1’s efforts to avoid relegation!
 
And finally, our controversy of the week section. As reported on above, there can be little doubt that the Murrayfield youngsters in Division 2 have very bright futures if they continue their progress. The noise level, however, from one of their players was absolutely ridiculous. Not only do we have tennis style grunting with every shot that’s played but in between points the constant chit chat and yelps of delight or disgust became intolerable for many players who were trying to play their own league match on Thursday night. Even the Murrayfield players who Team 1 were playing felt it was over the top. Rachel, Bob and Richard had to halt proceedings in their match because of the noise and it added to the night a degree of resentment from Team 3 towards their opponents which could really have been avoided.  We all have moments where we need to vent, whether that be a “good boy” chant or a scream of horror when we miss an easy shot. We get that we’re not robots and there’s nothing wrong with encouraging yourself somehow and geeing yourself up. TT is not a silent game but there has to come a point where a line is drawn, and something is done about this type of behaviour. As we’ve said many times before though, what can we expect when youngsters look at some of the top players in the game and they behave in a similar manner. The problem with Thursday night is that it spills over to those watching so James became very upset by the fact that not only would the Murrayfield supporters be clapping a good shot but they would also clap poor shots or misses from James – suddenly ill feeling exists. What do we do about it? Surely it has to start with the Clubs themselves stamping down on behaviour like this when it becomes excessive? This was a terrific match full of some excellent play from both sides and it’s a shame that that’s not all that the match will be remembered for.
 
In Team 4’s match, Rachel had a real gripe that in her crucial match which she lost in five, her concentration was completely lost after being comfortably up in the decider. At that point one of the Uni players came into the court to sit beside the umpire – is that controversial? No! You need to concentrate harder Rachel!
 
On we go to Week 22.